Cusco Racing’s parent company Carrosser announced their motorsport plans for 2016 with a varied programme that includes the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), the All Japan Rally Championship (JRC), Super endurance series, TGR 86 / BRZ race activities, the All Japan Dirt Trial Championships and Gymkhana Championship.
In the APRC Carrosser will continue support for EZY Racing’s driver Mike Young from New Zealand and after a year off , Sanjay Takale from India will return to the sport. Both drivers will register for the whole six round championship, driving Cusco built Subaru GRB-WRX’s with support from Dunlop tyres.
The team will be joined at the Asia Cup rounds by Japanese driver Yuya Sumiyama who will drive a newly developed AP4 car based on a Toyota Vitz, with a 1600cc turbo charged engine and a Carrosser built 4WD system. Cusco Racing ran a standard TRD version of the Vitz in 2013, driven by Young, winning the Asia Cup and Production Cup.
“With the phasing out of Group N from international competition, we see the AP4 cars as the future of the sport for our region”, said Carrosser President Tsutomu Nagase.
The AP4 regulations were approved by the FIA and APRC after MotorSport New Zealand (MSNZ) and the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) collaboratively developed the technical regulations based on a new generation of 4WD turbocharged rally cars eligible for competition in both National and International events within the Asia Pacific region.
The philosophy of AP4 is to establish a set of technical articles that allow rally teams to build locally, or buy cars of parallel design from overseas such as Maxi cars, that will be of a similar specification and performance to each other and to that of the FIA R5 / S2000 Category cars, but at significantly lower cost.
Driver profiles:
Yuya Sumiyama: http://aprc.tv/driversPage.php?10/
Sanjay Takale: http://aprc.tv/driversPage.php?42/
Mike Young: http://aprc.tv/driversPage.php?45/
2016 APRC Season Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzk66q02Hu8
